Central IL Community Blood Center Drive July 21st at The Police Department in Jacksonville

By Gary Scott on July 7, 2017 at 12:47pm

If you’re looking for a way to give back to the community or help those in need but aren’t sure how, a blood drive is always a good cause. On Friday 21st, you can contribute to that cause.

Tara Matheson, Recruitment Development Coordinator with the Central Illinois Community Blood Center, joined WLDS’ “What’s On Your Mind?” program to talk about this particular blood drive.

“That Friday we’re going to be hosting a blood drive at the police department in Jacksonville, and we’re going to be there from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. We welcome anybody who can come and help us out and donate. We are very low on donations. There has been a lot of illness going around and some severe weather in some of our service areas that has impacted our blood drive.”

Matheson says the blood center is running low on blood, especially O type bloods.

“There’s just so much illness going around that there is just so many donors around that are just not healthy enough to give. So anyone who is healthy and willing to help out we are especially in need of O positive and O negative and B negative donors right now. We did have an O patient that was a trauma patient earlier this week that used a significant amount of blood that we are still trying to recoup our supply of O.”

Matheson also laid out what a potential donor needs to be prepared for in order to give blood.

“Before you come to donate, the first thing we need is a photo ID. So if you can bring some kind of identification with you. You do need to be at least 16 years old, if you are 16 you need to have a parent. If you’re 17 just an ID. You need to make sure that you’re well hydrated, not on any kind of antibiotic for an infection. I know a lot of people think, ‘I feel better,’ but may have a few days of medicine left. They need to wait. You need make sure that you eat and drink before you donate the more you drink and the more you eat the better you are going to feel during the donation process.”

The Central Illinois Community Blood Center blood drive will be held on Friday (July 21) at the Jacksonville Police Department from 9-11:30 AM.